Bad Deeds for 11-18-2009

 

Good Book Title – rogue:

noun –
1. An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.
2. One who is playfully mischievous; a scamp.
3. A wandering beggar; a vagrant.
4. A vicious and solitary animal, especially an elephant that has separated itself from its herd.
5. An organism, especially a plant, that shows an undesirable variation from a standard.

adj. –
1. Vicious and solitary. Used of an animal, especially an elephant.
2. Large, destructive, and anomalous or unpredictable: a rogue wave; a rogue tornado.
3. Operating outside normal or desirable controls:

 

Bad Hillbilly Grammar, Alaskan Style – Sarah Palin took her book tour to the Rush Limbaugh Show this morning. The Oprah and Barbara Walters interviews have been fun, because they mostly just asked her about Levi Johnston, and it’s gratifying that God sent him to ruin her life and save the Republic. (Sometimes God opens a door. And it’s to Bristol’s room.) But the Rush interview was different. To Rush’s credit, he actually asked her about politics.

In answering about a dozen questions, Palin said some combination of “solutions,” “conservative” and “commonsense” twenty-five times. Is this an interview or a drinking game? Was Rush rewarding her by tossing her fish?

Her excitement got the better of her when she said, “But those common sense solutions there.” This was a shoehorn too far, as the correct form, in Hillbilly, is obviously “Those there commonsense solutions.”
When asked about the special Congressional election in New York’s 23rd District, Palin painted the race as part of “a clearer and clearer picture that what Americans are seeking – even in a district there in New York – they are seeking common sense conservative solutions to all the problems that we are facing.” Apparently she forgot that the Democrat won.

 

A Mixed Review – 😉 The book also fails to expose Mrs. Palin’s intellectual brilliance and keen grasp of foreign policy issues. Why wasn’t the text of her recent speech in Hong Kong included? Although it remains secret, it’s rumored that she viciously rebuked the Vietcong king for his assault on the Empire State Building. That’s a speech we’ve been waiting for nearly 75 years to hear. It’s big news and should have been included.

But a few bad reviews won’t stop her. She’s seen much worse from her kitchen window. It can’t be pleasant to gaze upon Antichristograd every morning as you brew your coffee.

My review isn’t complete, but I think I’ll quit anyway, because writing reviews, like governing, is just too darned hard to finish.

 

10 Murders per Day in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – A 7-year-old boy from El Paso, Texas, and his father were gunned down in the violent city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. More than 2,200 killings have been recorded this year in Ciudad Juarez, out of a population of approximately 1.5 million people. A bloody turf war between warring drug cartels that started last year has made the city one of the most violent in the world. According to statistics from local prosecutors, Ciudad Juarez records about 10 murders a day. The bloodiest month this year has been September, with 476 killings reported.

 

Democrats Give and Give, While Republicans Dig In – Senator Sherrod Brown, who is a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which included a public plan in its version of the health care legislation, said that liberals had already given a lot of ground, starting with their willingness to give up a fully government-run single-payer system, which many favor.

“A large number of people in this country including many, many doctors wanted Medicare for all,” he said. “That didn’t happen. Then we wanted a strong public option tied to Medicare rates. Then we wanted a public option building the Medicare network. That didn’t happen. Now we are saying public option coming out of the HELP Committee. And now we’re saying public option with the state opt-out. Where was the compromise coming from their side?”

 

Hard to Believe This is America – Rich Stockwell, senior producer at MSNBC’s “Countdown”, writes about his experiences at the free clinic funded by viewer contributions:

New Orleans, La. — – It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. “She’s decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances,” the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: “It’s stage four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors.” I don’t know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.

After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America. …

Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not “welfare queens” as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me. …

Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it’s about people. It’s about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I’d defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working. …

I am left with one overwhelming question: what does it say about us as a nation of people who can live in a country so rich and yet allow this to continue?

 

Hawaii Losing Beaches to Sea-Level Rise; Affects Economy – Geologists say more than 70 percent of Kauai’s beaches are eroding while Oahu has lost a quarter of its sandy shoreline. They warn the problem is only likely to get significantly worse in coming decades as global warming causes sea levels to rise more rapidly.

The loss of so many beaches is an alarming prospect for Hawaii on many levels. Many tourists come to Hawaii precisely because they want to lounge on and walk along its soft sandy shoreline. These visitors spend some $11.4 billion each year, making tourism the state’s largest employer.

A more rapid rise in sea levels, caused by global warming, is expected to contribute to erosion in Hawaii within decades. In 100 years, sea levels are likely to be at least 1 meter, or 3.3 feet, higher than they are now, pushing the ocean inland along coastal areas.

Disappearing sands would also wreak havoc on the environment as many animals and plants would lose important habitats. The Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species, gives birth and nurses pups on beaches. The green sea turtle, a threatened species, lays eggs in the sand.

 

Same Guy Who Tried to Get Bush to Appoint His Corrupt Pal, Bernie Kerick, to Head Up Homeland Security is Now Giving Advice About Homeland Security – Yep, Rudy Giuliani, the guy who would put his city’s police force, and later, America’s security in the hands of the most corrupt person imaginable, tells us how to protest the country. And he contradicts himself doing it.

 

Republican Congressman Suggests Democrats Want Another Terrorist Attack – Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas suggested yesterday that Democrats may actually want another terrorist attack in New York City because rebuilding the city would create jobs. Gohmert also said that “it is extremely helpful to have a community organizer in the White House because you’ll need lots of community organization in order to adequately evacuate massive areas of the most densely populated area in America.”

 

CIA Secret ‘Torture’ Prison Built at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy – Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected terrorists at a time. “The activities in that prison were illegal,” said human rights researcher John Sifton. “They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions.” A CIA front company, Elite, LLC, purchased the property and built the “black site” in 2004.

 

Detainees Moved to DMV; Could Be Held There ‘Indefinitely’ – 😉 In a plan that would solve the thorny problem of where to transfer the detainees currently held at Guantanamo, Attorney General Eric Holder said today that the enemy combatants would be transferred immediately to a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Manhattan.

While Mr. Holder did not indicate how long the detainees might be held there, he did say that the DMV “is capable of detaining them indefinitely.”

Elsewhere, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced that her audiobook would be read by Barney the Dinosaur.

Regards,

Jim